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Another Maryland SWAT team kills a dog

Mike Hasenei says a police raid on his home left him with a sprained wrist, a bullet hole in his bed and a dead dog.

“They shot three times. Two hit the dog, one hit the bed,” Hasenei told the Howard County Times.

If it all sounds vaguely familiar, think back to July. That’s when police busted into Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo’s home and shot Calvo’s dogs during a raid that netted nothing. Police later cleared Calvo and his wife of any wrongdoing and charged two unrelated people as suspects.

The Calvos

Several Maryland legislators, as a result, have introduced legislation that would require law enforcement agencies to issue monthly reports on SWAT team deployments. It’s called Senate Bill 447.

In the latest incident, Hasenei, 39, of the 6600 block of Deep Run Parkway, Elkridge, said he was sleeping when a Howard County police tactical team kicked in the door to his house on Jan. 15.

When he asked what was going on, he said, he was knocked to the ground and told he was under arrest. Police then searched his house, looking for items stolen from two marked police cars that were reported broken into on Jan. 14 in the Elkridge community of Mayfield. The officers then proceeded to break down the door to his 12-year-old daughter’s room, and shoot his Australian cattle dog, in his bedroom. Hasenei works as a computer analyst at Marriott International.

Earlier that night, police also raided the nearby house of his stepson, Michael Leon Smith Jr., and turned up nothing, Hasenei said. When police raided his house, Hasenei said, they produced a search warrant relating to his stepson, who has not lived at the address for years.

Police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn confirmed the raid on Hasenei’s house, noting that police had a search warrant signed by a judge.

Llewellyn confirmed the dog shooting, but said the dog charged police, forcing them to shoot it. She said police didn’t knock because they suspected a gun was in the residence.

Hasenei showed his copy of the warrant to the Howard County Times. It listed items to be seized as a Sig Sauer Rifle and three ammunition magazines for the rifle, as well as a police gear bag, county police field procedures manual and guide, and more police-related items. Police found none of those in the raid.

Hasenei has filed a complaint about the incident with the Howard County Police Department.